Gordon Brown had no choice but to retreat on 10p - Philip Webster in The Times

"In the end it took a face-to-face meeting between Gordon Brown and Frank Field last night to end the 10p revolt. But if the government thinks it’s out of the woods, it should think again. Backbenchers are ready to use their newfound clout over other issues: the next big one being 42 days terror suspect detention without trial." - Jim Pickard on the FT blog

"There is a good case for getting rid of the 10p starting rate and simplifying the tax system. But this way is the wrong way. The Government should increase allowances to take more of the low-paid out of tax altogether. Mr Brown's approach is to make even more Britons beholden to him as the grand dispenser of taxpayers' largesse. He said yesterday that Labour's task was to lift people out of poverty. In which case, let the poor keep more of their own money." - Telegraph leader

"Taxing with one hand and giving credits with the other is confusing and bureaucratic. We need long-term solutions. And the Tories must suggest some too as well as attacking the PM. Why not take the low-paid out of tax altogether? Wouldn’t that be simpler and more transparent than complex credits?" - The Sun Says

Tebbit: Cameron should be wooing the voters who stopped supporting the Tories - not Blair's voters

"At the last election that Labour lost, in 1992, Neil Kinnock's vote was 11.6 million. In 1997, Tony Blair scored 13.5 million, an increase of 1.9 million. John Major's vote fell from 14.1 million to 9.6 million - a loss of 4.5 million. The Liberal Democrat vote also fell by 0.8 million, most of which, one might guess, supported Mr Blair. So, even if Tony Blair recruited not a single voter who had abstained in 1992 - a very unlikely scenario - no more than 1.1 million Tories deserted to New Labour. In all likelihood the total was less than half a million." - Read Lord Tebbit's full letter to The Telegraph